Mobile

Mobile is the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, the third-most-populous city in the state, and the state's only saltwater port. The city, named for the Native American Mabila tribe, was founded in 1702 by France as the first capital of French Louisiana; its original name was Fort Louis de la Louisiane. The city developed as a major port on the Gulf of Mexico, located along Mobile Bay. In 1763, Mobile and West Florida were ceded to Great Britain after the French and Indian War, and Mobile's Fort Conde was renamed to Fort Charlotte by the British Army. In 1780, Spanish general Bernardo de Galvez captured Fort Charlotte during the American Revolutionary War, and Mobile was ceded to Spain after the war ended in 1783. Mobile was a part of Spain until American general James Wilkinson seized the port in 1813 during the War of 1812, as Spain and the United Kingdom were allied at the time due to the Peninsular War, and the United States believed that it had rightfully purchased the area from France in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The port of Mobile would grow into a large city under American rule, and its capture by the Union in 1865 during the American Civil War was a blow to the Confederacy. Mobile would become one of the Gulf Coast's cultural centers, being home to several art museums and historic architecture. In 2015, Mobile had a population of 194,288 people.